Jacksonville, FL…Week Roundup

Me, Helen and Cousin Larry

I can’t believe how fast this past week has flown by! To recap the adventure for these past few days… We left Patrick Air Force Base and headed Northwest to Winter Springs, Florida. The many visits so far have been on Helen’s side of the family. This time it was my turn. We visited my cousin Larry Pellerin in Winter Springs. Larry's son Skip came over with his daughter Jessica and we had a wonderful visit. That night, we again did a driveway camp as we always do. The next morning, the Boomers were headed Northeast to the oldest city in the United States, St Augustine. When I mean historically old, I mean "old" 1565! The old downtown is devoted to tourism. The buildings are preserved and full of shops of every descriptions. St George street is devoted to pedestrians. Restaurants, wine and spirits abound. They even have a special parking lot devoted to buses and RVs. We spent a good part of the day shopping, exploring and taking pictures at the water front fort. 

Cocoa Beach near Patrick AFB

Two Cruisers, Two Fisherman, One Porpoise and One Sunset!

Our destination for the night would be  Navy Station Mayport in Jacksonville. It looked like a difficult drive on the map. It is located naturally on the water front with the entire city of Jacksonville around it’s perimeter. You know the kind of driving that takes you from I-95 to I-295 to this Boulevard, to that one and so on. I finally reached the main gate at mid afternoon. I only had to reverse direction one time, maybe a mile out of way. At the main gate, after showing ID, I asked “Where’s the RV campground?” The guard said “which one?” I now had a problem because we wanted to meet our Key West friends Paul and Joyce, (pictured below) who were camping here. The guard said I’ll send you to Pelican Roost, most likely their destination. A few rights and lefts and here we are at the camp host' RV. His wife met us and soon we had a spot. Pelican Roost is located at the confluence of the St John River and the Atlantic Ocean. The river here is maybe 300 to 400 feet wide and this is the entrance for all of the big Navy ships into the harbor. It is pretty impressive to see monster size ships go by so close to shore. I am talking about Navy guided missile Cruisers, one size down from a battleship. The campground staff and campers here are like Key West… very friendly and make you feel at home. We did have to dry camp here for one night as we didn’t have reservations. It was $8 for that night and the next two nights were $18 a night for full hookups. Free laundry, Wi-Fi, excellent restroom facilities, a large community room with computers, two large screen TV’s and many other amenities. Saturday and Sunday, we were at the other RV campground (Osprey Cove) with full hookups. Osprey Cove is the long term RV park. It is not on the water, but has a lot more real-estate between RVs. Saturday morning, there was a pancake breakfast at Pelican Roost. We had breakfast with Joyce and Paul. The topic of discussion was their upcoming trip to Alaska. We offered our tips and suggestions. We said our good byes and wished them a good trip home and to Alaska!

I wanted  to pickup a couple items at a Camping World RV dealer and off to spend a little money. I picked up the items and we also found a nice 9X12 exterior patio mat that we got at a very reasonable price. We headed back to Osprey Cove... two happy Boomers in tow. That evening we went to Easter Vigil Service on base. It was a full day, but a satisfying day!
Sunday morning (Easter Sunday) we rested and I blogged all morning. Helen prepared a good ham dinner (our traditional Easter meal). She  called family members to wish them a Happy Easter. Oh, I forgot to mention that this morning when I opened the camper door, I found two Easter Eggs! That was nice of the camp host to do that. The chocolate was well appreciated.

That is what we did  and saw!